On the Boston Marathon Bombing

 Posted by on 16 April 2013 at 10:00 am  Benevolence, Ethics, Evil, Terrorism
Apr 162013
 

I don’t have words to properly express my feelings about yesterday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon, so I’ll let Craig Biddle of The Objective Standard speak for me:

Our hearts go out to the victims of the explosions in Boston and to their families and loved ones. Kudos to the first responders and others who are helping the victims and hunting the perpetrators. May justice be swift and decisive.

I have read some gut-wrenching accounts from eye-witnesses, particularly Tragedy in Boston: One Photographer’s Eyewitness Account.

The stories of people helping the many confused, frightened, hungry, cold, and stranded runners are heartening, yet also somehow awful. It’s heartening to see ordinary people fight such evil with benevolence. Such people are not willing to allow the bombing to victimize any more people than necessary, and that’s so very good of them. Yet the bombing was not a natural disaster, but a vicious attack against innocent people. Such kindness should not be necessary, and that’s what makes it so awful too.

Also, for a well-earned smack-down of pundits already using the bombing to score political points, read: The 6 Worst Media Reactions to the Boston Marathon Bombing. Blech.

If, like me, you need to experience a bit of cheery goodness after thinking on such events, go watch this video: Hero Turtle Rescues Upside Down Turtle.

Granted, Hero Turtle takes his sweet time in accomplishing the rescue… but such is his nature!

Dishonesty About 9/11

 Posted by on 10 March 2012 at 9:49 pm  Honesty, Media, Terrorism
Mar 102012
 

OpinionJournal has an interesting article by Claudia Rosett on the 9/11 special airing on CBS tonight. Rosett argues that the special is dishonest in its attempt to be sensitive, sugar-coating the terrorist attack rather than showing it in its full horror. We need to face the reality of those attacks squarely, even if painful.

I have often wondered why the news outlets have shown little footage of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center since those first few days after 9/11. Those images would recapture all of the overwhelming emotion of that day for me, from incredulity to despair. I want to be reminded of those emotions, of the magnitude of the events that day. No too often, for then such feelings are trivialized. But a special on the six month anniversary would seem to be an excellent time to really show us again the full reality of what happened.

We’ll see how well or poorly CBS does tonight. I’m not too hopeful.

Horror is Good (Sometimes)

 Posted by on 21 March 2002 at 5:13 pm  Terrorism
Mar 212002
 

Jonah Goldberg has a good article entitled Bring Back the Horror on NRO which argues that the media shouldn’t be avoiding the terrible images of September 11th. “Oh dear, people might be disturbed!” they say. Hogwash. We ought to be disturbed! It is an excellent statement of many of the unformed thoughts that have been rolling around in my head over the past few weeks.

Mar 112002
 

National Review has a delightful article by Victor Davis Hanson on the US-Kuwaiti relationship. Regarding our foreign aid in the Islamic Middle East, Hanson writes that “it would be far more intellectually honest — and cheaper — simply now to allow them all to be the enemies that they wish to be rather than the friends they do not.” Indeed!

Here’s my favorite bit:

“…public opinion in Kuwait confirms that the root of anti-Americanism is not poverty (they are rich), not exploitation (they do not give oil away), not past grievance (we saved them), not purported solidarity with the Palestinians (whom they ejected), but a basic sense of umbrage and accompanying envy that grows with greater exposure to the West.”

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